How can we build
our homes and communities so that they co-exist harmoniously with
Nature? What does it mean to create a sustainable house, a sustainable
community, a sustainable city? For each additional day that we
live, design and build unsustainably, we pull another fibre out
of the fabric of Earth’s ecosystems.

Traditional 2000-year-old Tswana designs using earth and thatch as well as buildings constructed from large earth-filled bags with fired-brick dome roofs. Locally available and recycled materials were used for foundations, walls, floors and roofs. sustainable building systems with natural waste treatment and the permaculture approach for designing food self-reliance. This includes using modern techniques of unburned mudbrick, passive solar design, appropriate technologies of rainwater collection, compost toilets, grey-water irrigation and solar water heating.

Planning takes economical and environmental sustainability as the basis for design.

"When we first put our ideas to the local authority the legal framework and political climate were unfavourable. The accepted wisdom was that rural areas should not be subdivided below 40 acres (16 ha). In Queensland new villages were not permitted (although exceptions existed for mining companies). The combination of agricultural, residential, manufacturing, educational and recreational use of land was discouraged.

However, by patient negotiation and discussion with the local authority we were able to work through these issues, and we have shown that people and agriculture are a healthy combination and are actually interdependent. We have learned that ‘no’ need not be the last answer and that politicians can be convinced with well researched arguments.